The Lady Beekeeper

Last January I resolved to blog more regularly. More specifically I wanted to blog once a week. Later in the year I started to impose a more strict goal of finishing a blog entry every Monday. I didn’t quite hit every Monday.  A few times I was a couple days late, but looking back I feel pretty proud that I managed to accomplish my original goal! Not only that but I came up with a year of food, craft and sewing tutorials and got a lot of great Pinterest traffic from all you awesome pinners! Plus that blogging goal was all before my early spring decision to make and sell homemade hats at King Richard’s Faire! So I guess you can say I feel pretty accomplished! What a great feeling!

If you can imagine, the whole hat thing ate up a lot of my time (understatement of the year, try 6 months of nights, weekends and holidays), but if you count hat-making as “life” and not “work” (I do) it forced me to keep a more reasonable work/life balance. This year I’m planning to keep to my Monday blogging schedule and attempt to keep that work/life balance I managed to forge. I also want to work on my time management and scheduling skills. More specifically I’d like to be more reasonable with the goals and deadlines I set for myself. I’ll have to come up with a measurable success meter for that.  Handmade hats will not be a goal for this year.  While I’ll always be a mad hatter at heart, I feel that I can also say, “been there done that”.  Oh and you’ll have to stay tuned for some ridiculous vignettes from the faire.

Amidst all the bustle of my hat making and blogging I did manage to fulfill a few custom orders for family and friends. One of those was a neat fold-up beach tote. If you’re like me and have a “to make” list a mile long you’ll want to put this on your list now so you’ll finally get to it by beach season. Or perhaps whipping up this bag will evoke fantasies of laying on the beach and stave away the winter doldrums. This reusable tote was requested by a friend of mine and it is based on a free bag they got at a company give away. My friend lives near the ocean and he and his wife frequently trek down to the beach with lunch, towels, chairs and drinks in hand. This bag can hold it all, and effortlessly hang over your shoulder! The embroidery is optional but adds a nice touch. Unfortunately it was very tricky to successfully embroider on rip-stop nylon without excessive puckering, so take that as a warning!

Look how big this bag is! (Or how tiny I am?!)

Take-it-all-to-the-beach Bag

Materials:

• 2.5 yards of rip stop nylon
• Scrap pieces of lightweight fusible interfacing
• 1 set of snap fasteners I used this kind
• Beach Bag Pattern here

*Note in the pictures below I used my serger – my new favorite sewing device!  If you don’t have a serger, no worries, you can use just an ordinary straight stitch!

1. Cut 2 body pieces from pattern above. Cut 4 20″x5″ rectangles for side of bag.  Cut 2 handle pieces to the line on the pattern and 2 3″ by 8″ rectangles for handle reinforcement.  Finally cut 4 5.25″x1.25″ rectangles for the snap closure.
2. Take 2 of the 20″x5″ rectangles and pin them together along to the length.  Stitch.  Repeat for second set.
   

   Pin to side rectangles together and stitch.

3. Pin one of sides of the bag from step 2 to the side of one of the body pieces starting at the point below the handles.  Make sure to keep right sides together. Pin second body piece to other side of the side piece from step 2. Stitch both sides.
   

   Pin side to body of bag, matching top corner of body to corner of side.

   

   Repeat for second body piece.

4. Pin the bottom of the bag together, then pull out sides to see if bag bottom length will line up with sides perfectly.  Adjust pins as necessary.  Stitch bottom of bag.
   

   Pin bottom of bag, pull taunt to bottom side of bag to see if sizes match.

5. Pin side bottom of the bag to sides.  They should line up perfectly if you lined things up in step 4.  Stitch.
   

   Pin bottom of bag to side, stitch.

6. Pin handles to each other at the top, right sides together.  Stitch
7.  Pin handle reinforcements to side reinforcements. Stitch.
   

   Pin handle reinforcement to side reinforcement, stitch. Repeat for other handle piece and other side.

8. Pin handles on reinforcements to each other at the top, right sides together.
9. Open the bag right side out.  Fold under 1/4″ along unfinished edge of handles and bag top.  Pin.
   

   Pin handle area to handle reinforcement.

10.  Repeat step 9 with the handle reinforcement.
11. Slip handle reinforcement inside bag and align the handles.  Pin reinforcement to bag all along the edges you just pinned.  Unfinished edges should be sandwiched in between.
12. Stitch around “armpits” of the bag. Mark the center back of the bag with a pin. Stitch from 1″ past pin to 1″ from this pin all the way around the handles.
    

    Stitch around edge of handles.

13. Take 2 of the thin strips for the snap closures and iron on a 1.25″x1.25″ square of interfacing to one end of each strip.
    

    Attach interfacing to strip for snaps.

14. Pin a strip with interfacing to a strip without interfacing, interfacing side out.  Leave the edge opposite the interfacing opened.  Stitch.
15. Clip corners.
    

    Trim corners.

16. Turn inside out, press flat and stitch 1/8″ around the edges to reinforce.
    

    Top stitch 1/8″ from the edge.

17. Attach one edge of the snap following package directions.
18. Repeat steps 14 through 18 for second snap strip.
19. Insert unfinished edges of snap fasteners in between the handle and handle reinforcement you left unfinished in step 12. Pin.
20. Double check your alignment of the snaps.  You want to be able to roll the bag up to the snaps, and the snap pieces to button around the bag like a bracelet.  (See picture of the bag closed below.)  When you’re content you have it right, stitch the remaining edge closed, sandwiching the unfinished ends of the snap fastener pieces inside.
21. Go to the beach (or optionally add a pocket in steps following!)
22. Cut a 10″x10″ square.
23. Fold under 1/2″, press and stitch.  This is the top of the pocket.
    

    Fold under 1/2″ on top of pocket and stitch.

24. Press under 1/2″ all around the remaining edges of the pocket.  Pin the pocket to the center of the bag all around the unfinished edges.  Top stitch 1/4″ from the edges of the pocket to attach to bag.
    

    Fold under edges 1/2″. Pin pocket to center back of bag. Top stitch around edges.

     

    

    To fold the bag up, just fold up tightly starting at the bottom of the bag. When you get to the top, fold in thirds then fasten the snaps around.

    

    Snaps fastened around the bag. It folds up fairly small for such a large bag!

    

    You can fit a novel in the back pocket for beach reading!

    

    Inside view of the bag. The strips for the snaps just hang inside the bag.

    

    I added an optional pocket (steps 22 through 24) to the back.

    

    My friend wanted the bag to say “Nana’s Beach Bag” on the front. His wife is now “Nana” to his young grandson!

On Saturday Will and I marched with over 100,000 people in the Boston Women’s March. What an amazing, empowering experience to have been a part of. Like many Americans I have felt belittled, insulted or targeted during this election for being different than the man who was just sworn in as president. (And I am a privileged, white, straight female so I can only imagine how the rest of the nation feels.) I marched to support anyone and everyone who was or is being targeted because of their differences. I don’t want the younger generation to grow up believing that racism, bigotry and hatred is the status quo. I never want a child (or adult) to be treated differently because of their gender, color, religion or sexual orientation. I marched as a lover of Mother Earth and an engineer who will not ignore science and global warming. Finally, I marched as a woman, who refuses to have her reproductive rights governed.

One of our favorite signs, “we are the daughters of the witches you weren’t able to burn”.

The night before the march I found out about the Pussy Hat Project. The idea was to fill the March on Washington with a sea of pink hats (with cat ears) and judging from the pictures it worked out pretty well. Since it was regretfully too late by Friday night to ship any hats to D.C., I decided to make a couple for the march in Boston out of some leftover polar fleece I had lying around. After talking with several women at the march it seems I was very lucky that I had pink polar fleece in my stash because stores across New England were completely sold out of pink fabric the week before the march! Awesome!

Emma, Danielle and I rockin’ our pussy hats at the march!

Even though the march is over, you can still make and wear a pussy hat with pride. Whatever your reason for wanting a hat, when you wear it think of all the women and allies who stand together with you and refuse to let their voices sink into the masses.

Is that a pussy hat? How stylish!

Fleece Pussy Hat

(This pattern is made for my 21.5″ head)

• 1 yard of pink polar fleece
• pink thread
• Pattern here

1. Cut out 4 sets of the ear pattern from the fleece (2 on the right side, 2 on the wrong side).
   

   Cut out ears.

2. Cut out 4 of the triangles (all on right side of fabric)
3. Cut out a 22.5″x7″ rectangle for the brim.
   

   Cut hat band.

4. Pin cat ears together, right side to wrong side.
   

   Pin ears together, right side to wrong side.

5. Stitch around the curved edge, trim to 1/4″ and turn out.
   

   Stitch ear along edge and trim.

   

   Turn inside out.

6. Fold the ear along the line in the pattern, wrong side of fabric on the inside of the ear.  Pin.
   

   Fold ear in 1/3s

7. Pin 2 of the triangle pieces together along one side, right sides together.  Stitch.  Repeat for second set of triangles.
   

   Pin two triangles together on one side.

8. Place one set of triangles right side up on the table.  Put ears on either side of the hat front, about an inch above the bottom of the hat on each side.
9. Flip ears onto front of hat, right sides down.
   

   Turn ears into hat.

10. Place hat bottom on top of ears and hat front, right side down.
11. Pin along to top edge and sew.  Open out.
    

    Pin and stitch top, bottom and ears of hat together.

    

    Finished top of hat!

12. Fold band in half the long ways, wrong side in.  Pin along the edge.
    

    Fold band in half and pin.

13. Pin short edges together and stitch.
    

    Stitch edges of brim together.

14. Place hat band on top of hat top, unfinished edges together, matching seam on hat band and back of hat. Pin and stitch.
    

    Stitch brim to top of hat.

15. Wear with pride!
    

    Check out those hats!

I mentioned that my sister was in town the other day for our New Year’s Eve Party, right? Well it was also her birthday this past week!  I wanted to make something for her that she could easily fit in her carry on and then I remembered my last visit to Denver.  Mandy asked me to join her for her first yoga class.  Now she is hooked!  Not surprising since yoga is so awesome, but I consider getting another person hooked on the joys of yoga a total win!

I decided to make her a mat holder for her birthday, though I wanted to improve on the one I made for myself.  My biggest problem with the holder I made is that the pocket is pretty small.  I can only fit my strap in there.  This is because the curvature of the mat tightens the pocket.  I haven’t completely solved this problem, but in the coming weeks I hope to show you yet another solution I came up with to resolve this problem.    The other issue I did resolve.  The orientation of the straps make it a bit awkward to throw over your shoulder.  I also lengthened them a bit, though I don’t think this was necessary.  Let me know what you think!

Improved Yoga Mat Carrier

What you’ll need:

• ~1/2 yard of scrap fabric (I used some leftover from the curtains in our lounge)
• 3.5 yards of 1″ thick nylon heavy webbing
• 1 foot of velcro
• 3 inches of covered elastic
• 1″ button

1. Cut a 22″x16″ rectangle of your fabric.
2. Press the sides under 1/2″ then under 1/2″ again.
   

   Fold edges under and press

3. Fold out the corners.  Snip the corner off at the first intersection of your folds.
   

   Snip off corner at first intersection

4. Fold the rest of the corner over at the inner most intersection of your folds. Then fold the edges under 1/2″ and under 1/2″ again following the original folds.
   

   Mitered corners

5. Repeat for all 4 corners.  Pin & stitch
   

   Pin and stitch edges

6. Cut an isosceles trapezoid with dimensions as shown in the picture for your pocket.
   

   Cut trapezoid with dimensions specified.

7. Press the top (long end) under 1/4″ and then under 1/4″ again.  Stitch.
8. Fold large rectangle for the bag in half to find the center.  Pin the unfinished edge of the pocket slightly above this line. Stitch, leaving 1/2″ at each end unstitched.
   

   Pin bottom of pocket to bag. (The top of your pocket should be finished.)

9. Fold 1/2″ in along each side. Pull the sides up so they are perpendicular to the bottom that you stitched. Pin the sides of the pocket and stitch on the right side of the pocket.
   

   Stitch on the right side of the pocket.

10. Attach a loop of elastic to the inside of the pocket.
    

    Attach loop of elastic to inside of pocket.

11. Attach a button an inch above where the pocket ends.
    

    Attach button.

12. Attach a 3.5″ piece of velcro vertically to the edge of each side of the top of the “bag” on the the right side of the fabric.
    

    Attach other side of velcro to opposite side, outside carrier.

13. Attach the other half of the 3.5″ piece of velcro on the edge of each side of the bottom of the “bag” (this is the side with the pocket) on the wrong side of the fabric .
    

    Attach velcro to sides inside carrier.

14. Take your nylon webbing and toast the edges slightly with a lighter to prevent fraying.
    

    Burn edges to prevent fraying

15. Form a giant loop with your webbing, making sure the loop is not twisted anywhere.  Pin the ends of the loop together and stitch.
    

    Stitch nylon together. Fold loop in half, and mark the center on both sides.

16. Fold loop in half and mark the two folds (one should be the part you stitched in step 15).  Once again fold fabric in half and pin one of the center marks of webbing to one side at the fold.   Pin  strap to edge until you are within 5 inches of the top and bottom.  Repeat for second center mark.  Make sure your strap is not twisted.
    

    Fold carrier in half and pin nylon centers at this mark on each side.

17. Stitch both straps on the edge from 2 inches below the velcro to 2 inches below the velcro on the other side.

Enjoy!

To roll up your yoga mat lay the rectangle flat and put your yoga bag on top.  Pull the side with pocket up first around mat snuggly, then wrap the other side around securing to the velcro.  You can put your yoga strap in the front pocket!

Wrap your yoga mat.

Your pocket can hold small things like a yoga strap!

Mandy with her yoga mat carrier!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Winter Solstice and Happy Holidays!  I hope you had/are having a wonderful time celebrating with your family and friends.

Every year my co-workers and I make each other gifts for Christmas. In the past it has been a food product.  One year it was mulling spices, another it was peppermint bark. This year I wanted to sew my co-workers something since I’ve been on a sewing kick. I also figured that all my extra time on sabbatical would enable me to prep for the holidays more adequately. Boy was I wrong. The sabbatical just gave me the hope that I had infinite time, and encouraged me to create an idyllic time blind list of dozens upon dozens of things I wanted to accomplish. I won’t tell you how many things were on the list or you’d just laugh at my naivety. Let’s just say I’ll have no shortage of blog entries in the coming months.

Honestly this whole sabbatical and hat making adventure has lead me to identify one of my tragic flaws. I’m going to call it over-optimistic time dilation. You see I’ve always been terrible at time management. In college I would stay up for days on end with different partners to finish projects we all thought would get done earlier. At work I’ve learned to purposely increase my estimates for how long things will take, to lengths that seem preposterous to my over enthusiastic mind. My problem is not necessarily knowing how long something will take but instead giving myself overly ambitious deadlines because I don’t take into account interruptions or unforeseen circumstances or am overly enthusiastic about how hard I will want work on the project after a long day at work.

To add to my estimation troubles, I’m a bit of a procrastinator. My theory is that I’ve actually developed this over-aggressive time estimation as a defense mechanism to cure my procrastination. I actually believe that giving myself nearly unachievable deadlines holds me to lofty goals and forces me to work on these goals rather than procrastinate. It works about 50% of the time. Unfortunately this means that the other 50%of the time I spend watching a movie with Will or drinking wine instead of accomplishing something on my endless list of exciting projects to try. Anyway, all this is to say that in addition to the beast of a sabbatical list, I also created myself a Christmas project list and full on over-enthusiastic schedule for Christmas projects I wanted to accomplish. Guess how that turned out? Yeah… let’s just say I finished my co-worker’s presents the day before I left for Nashville, and didn’t make anything for our families. On the bright side I think I have a New Year’s resolution!

One of the presents I made this year is a great stand by for anyone who needs a quick present for a home owner. My co-worker can’t be described by anything other than an “extreme Purdue fan”. His entire apartment is decorated in black and gold. Being a bachelor he doesn’t have much in the way of frivolities like decorative throw pillows so I decided to make him a Purdue colored pillow for his living room. You can adapt this simple striped pillow to any color scheme you see fit.

Finished pillow

Simple Striped Pillow

• 1 yard of black material (or color of your choice*)
• 1 yard of gold material (or color of your choice*)
• 18″x18″ pillow form

*You can use any materials you want, but make sure that the two fabrics you choose are of a similar structure and weave. For instance, don’t choose a black leather with a knit gold material. I used thick black woven faux suede and a gold pleather.

All measurements below account for 1/2″ seam allowance.

1. Cut two 7″x19″ rectangles, two 1.5″x19″ rectangles and two 12″x19″ rectangles from black.
2. Cut one 5″x19″ rectangle and two 2″x19″ rectangles from gold.

Cut fabric into rectangles.

3. Pin 5″ gold rectangle to both 1.5″ black rectangle lengthwise. Stitch.
4. Pin one 2″ gold rectangle lengthwise to each 1.5″ black rectangle end remaining. Stitch.

Pin black to gold stripe.

5. Pin one black 7″ rectangle lengthwise to each of the 2″ gold rectangles. Stitch.
6. Press on wrong side of pillow. The front of your pillow is complete!

Press

7. Take the 12″ rectangle and fold under a lengthwise edge 1/2″ to form a hem. Repeat for second rectangle.

Pin under 1/2″ on back pieces of pillow.

8. Lay the finished edge of one of the rectangles over the finished edge of the second rectangle, overlapping by 2.5″. Pin and baste along the edge of the fabric at the overlap point.

Place hemmed edge of pillow back over other hemmed edge and pin at edges.

9. Line up the back square created in 9 by the front square created in 6, right sides together.

Pin pillow back to pillow front, right sides together.

10. Pin edges and stitch. Trim edges and clip points, turn inside out.
11. Place pillow cover over pillow form by inserting through back opening.
Enjoy!

Finished pillow front.

Finished pillow back.

I love flannel.  I confess it.  It is so cozy it feels like you’re being wrapped up in a big warm hug.  Almost scandalous to wear to work its so comfortable.  Anyway I’m working on a flannel dress (to be honest I’ve been working on it since mid sabbatical nearly 8 weeks ago). You see, I used to go all out for “Fancy Fridays”.

Since I’m an engineer, dressing up for work inspires a lot of confused questions from co-workers.  “Hot date tonight?” “Good luck on your job interview.”  Or the plain old, “why are you wearing a dress?”  So I started dressing up on Fridays and using the excuse “Fancy Friday” as a joke.  People thought it was funny and I got a lot of compliments.  Then after work one fall night my co-workers remarked that it was getting too cold for dresses and wondered what would I do.  A work friend was wearing flannel that day so we decided to adopt “Flannel Friday” as a group.  I originally planned to do a combined flannel Friday and fancy Friday, but have you ever tried to find fancy flannel?  It just doesn’t exist.  Hence me working on a dress.  Anyway.

All this is to tell you that I am making ornaments out of the scrap fabric from my dress to make for my Flannel Friday following co-workers.  I hope they don’t read this in the next couple days.  This is a super quick and easy tutorial, so I hope you whip some up for your fabulous co-workers and inspire some flannel-wearing.  Trust me, you won’t regret it.

Voila! Your tree in fabulous flannel!

Flannel Friday Heart Ornament

• Scrap flannel (about 12″x12″ square)
• 8″ of 1/2″ satin ribbon
• heart pattern

1. Cut out the heart pattern above and trace onto scrap flannel along the bias (This makes the pattern pretty cute, but is a bit trickier to stuff and sew) or lined up with selvedge.
   

   Trace heart pattern onto flannel.

   

   Trace two hearts on flannel on the bias.

2. Cut 2 heart shapes out leaving 1/2″ seam allowance.
   

   Cut around heart leave 1/2″ seam allowance.

3. Pin hearts together, right sides together.
   

   Pin.

4. Fold ribbon in half, insert inside the heart the cut edges above the point where both lobes of the heart meet.  Repin.
   

   Pin ribbon inside heart.

5. Stitch hearts together leaving a 1″ gap opened on one of the straight side seams of the heart.  Clip curves and the “v” of the heart.
   

   Clip curves and dip in heart.

6. Open out and stuff.
   

   Stuff.

7. Tuck the unfinished seam allowance of the gap inside the heart and and stitch (whip stitch) the 1″ gap closed.
   

   Hand stitch opening closed.

   Voila!

   

Well we finally finished decorating our Christmas tree, so I’m happy to say that Santa can come now.  December always seems to fly by, especially this year when I have an extra long list of crafts I want to finish by Christmas.  To keep me in the spirit, I’ve been listening to a lot of Christmas music lately  and “My Favorite Things” from Sound of Music is one that comes up frequently.  A lot of the things she sing about seem so arbitrary yet so poetic.  I have a similar list of arbitrary things that I conjure up when I’m feeling down or scared.  Here’s a snapshot of mine.

• my sewing machine
• yoga
• laughing babies
• flannel friday
• fall
• the smell before a thunderstorm
• thunderstorms
• the full moon obscured by clouds
• pastures of cows
• fires
• meteor showers
• when you exchange glances and share a joke with a complete stranger without saying a word
• acoustic guitars
• mashed potatoes and gravy
• short legged dogs like dachshunds and corgis (one in particular)

I don’t know why but my list’s short legged dogs combined with Maria’s “girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes” had me thinking of Corgis with bows around their necks.  So I decided to make Dany a festive Christmas bow for her collar.  You could change out the velcro portion and attach a hair clip instead for a cute hair accessory.  For a male dog you can omit the tails of the ribbon and make the width of the bow slightly narrower for a bow tie.  For cats, scale down as appropriate.

Okay fine, here’s the bow.

Dog Bow Christmas Collar Accessory

• 1/4 yard of festive cotton material
• a few inches of string/ribbon
• 1 inch of velcro

1. Cut a 15″x9″ rectangle for the bow, a 9.5″x7″ rectangle for the tails, and a 9.5″x3.5″ rectangle for the center.
2. Fold the 15″x9″ bow in half long ways to form a 4.5″x15″ rectangle, right sides together.  Pin and stitch along the open length.
   

   Fold Bow in half, stitch long end.

3. Open out. Pin and stitch the ends together to form a tube.  The unfinished edge should be in the center of the tube.
   

   Pin and stitch ends together.

4. Take the 9.5″x7″ rectangle for the tails and fold it in half the long ways to form a 3.5″x9.5″ rectangle, right sides together.
   

   Pin and stitch along the edges of the tail, leaving a 2″ gap.

5. Pin along all 3 sides, leaving a 2″ gap in the center of the long side.  Stitch all three sides except the 2″ gap.
6. Clip corners, open out and press flat.
   

   Turn inside out and press.

7. Take the center 9.5″x3.5″ rectangle and fold it in half the long ways to form a 9.5″x1.75″ rectangle, right sides together.
8. Pin and stitch along the open length.
   

   Fold bow center in half and stitch.

9. Take your bow tube and put the seam in the center back.  Place the tail directly under the bow tube.
   

   Line up bow and tails.

10. Scrunch the bow tube along the center and the tail along the center and tie them together with string or ribbon.
    

    Tie bow and tails together.

11. Take the center rectangle and wrap around the string.  Form a loop, pin and remove from the bow and tails.  Stitch.
    

    Form a loop to fit around bow and tails, remove from bow.

12. Measure your dog’s collar width.  Mine was 1″ thick.  Double and add 1/2″ for your strap length.  Stitch velcro on the back of the center loop you formed in 11.  Measure one strap length from the center of your velcro.  Cut.
    

    Stitch velcro to loop.

13. Fold under 1/2″ and stitch.
14. Attach velcro to folded edge, making sure the velcro will meet the other side of velcro in a loop.
    

    Stitch velcro to end.

15. Attach the loop around your dog’s collar and show her off!
    

    I’m such a pretty Christmas Corg!

    

    I’ll show off my downward dog skills, oh and this bow.

    

    You sure you don’t just want a picture of my face?

This was my first week back at work after 9 weeks off.  Let me just say, it was really, really rough getting up the first day.  Not to mention that I spent the entirety of last week dreading going back, so that was a waste of a week!  I’m starting to get back into the swing of things, but I have such a backlog of gifts I wanted to get done for Christmas that I made daily sewing appointments in my calendar for craft projects.   Get ready for some great Christmas projects in the coming weeks!

We had our first real snowfall today so its really starting to feel like winter.  That and I’m curled up by the fire with a glass of wine writing this post.  While I’m sitting here reminiscing I thought I’d point you to some past blog entries with cute quick Christmas gifts you could make in a pinch (each takes <1 hour to create)!  I hope they inspire you to create this Christmas!

For your fit and fabulous friends:

Running Belt for your keys and cell phone

For someone you’d like to pamper:

Homemade lip balm

For your co-workers:

For the foodie (add in a bottle of wine):

For the environmentally conscience:

For the nerd in your life:

This is just a taste of some of the past ideas on my blog.  For other ideas click on one of the categories above and scroll through the photos.  I’d love to hear what you’re making for folks this year!  Drop me a note in the comments below!  And without further ado here are the instructions for my fabulous flapper headpiece!

Fabulous flapper headpiece

Fabulous Flapper Headpiece

What you’ll need:

• Assorted feathers ( I choose two ostrich plumes, a peacock feather and a couple rooster feathers)
• 1 yard of 1 inch wide trim
• 2 inches of 1″ thick elastic
• Oversized decorative button

1. Measure the circumference of your head just above the ears.  Cut a piece of trim 1 inch larger than the circumference of your head.
2. Turn ends of trim under 1/2″ and stitch in place.
   

   Turn raw ends of band under and stitch in place.  Sorry it is so blurry!

3. Slightly overlap edges of trim and stitch elastic to trim, one side at a time.  Make sure you do not sew the trim together completely.  Stitch close to the top of the band then close to the bottom of the band.
   

   Stitch elastic to inside of band, slightly overlapping the ends.

4. Arrange your feathers as you prefer and use masking tape to hold their bases together.
5. Place feather arrangement on the side of the headband on top of the right side of the band.  Stitch through tape and feathers to adhere to band. Sew one line of stitching near the top of the band and another line near the bottom.
   

   Stitch feathers to band.

6. Take a 2″ piece of trim and fold edges under.  Matching the pattern on the band, stitch piece of trim on top of the feathers, hiding the masking tape.
   

   Stitch piece of trim over band to cover bottom of feathers.

7. By hand, sew decorative button on top of the trim hiding the feathers.

I have some great friends… A few weeks ago some of my friends’ found out that there is a “speakeasy” themed bar in town that serves prohibition era cocktails.  It claims to be a cobbler shop and its entrance is hidden in the back of a working creamery.  The suggestion was that we get a few people together, dress up in 1920’s garb and head to the speakeasy for some cocktails.  AWESOME.  How fun.  I’ve been wanting to create a flapper dress for a while and have a bunch of pins on my pinterest sewing board of authentic 1920’s dresses.

If you’ve never seen a quintessential flapper dress I can tell you they are not particularly flattering.  I used to say I hated 1920’s style for this reason, but with my love of costumes I’ve grown to love this time period too.  And looking more into authentic dresses they aren’t as hideous as I once thought.  The commonality seems to be a top portion that is square to the hips (which does not flatter the breasts in any way).  At the hips the skirt generally became either fuller or tight fitting.  From the models I observed, many dresses had skirts that were cut on the bias so it would stretch to your curves.  For a time, the skirt was shorter than average for the time period, but not well above the knee as modern interpretations and Halloween costumes would have us believe.

Many of the examples I looked at had a chiffon overlay with a silk lining underneath.  The lining was form fitting in the few examples I saw.  I decided to go with this, and use a vintage silk slip I had sitting in my closet as the under dress.  To make the overdress I drafted the entire thing on my mannequin, and didn’t even try it on until it was time to leave.  I figured since the style was masculine and ill fitting this shouldn’t be a problem.  I had many yards of nylon chiffon left over from my hatmaking, and since nylon chiffon has the advantage that it doesn’t fray I thought this would make things ever easier!  Overall the dress was fairly simple to make, and when I mentioned this to my husband he said “I’m not surprised, you could have taken a potato sack, cut arm and neck holes and called it done”.  Thanks babe.

Anyway here’s how I did it if you want to try your hand at it yourself.  And take a look at my next post for how to make the flapper headpiece!

Flapper Dress

What you’ll need:

• About 2 yards of nylon chiffon (the beauty of this chiffon is that it does not fray so there is no need to hem!)
• About 5 yards of trim
• mannequin

1. Start by measuring from your waistline to the top of your shoulder in both the front and back. Then measure from inseam to inseam around your waist at the largest part of your hips in the back and from inseam to inseam at the largest part of your bust in front.
2. Cut two rectangles of fabric bust width x front height and hip width x back height.
3. In the front piece, cut a 2 inch notch in the center where the neck will go.
   

   Cut notch in neck seam.

4. Using your mannequin pin shoulder seams.  Serge shoulder seams.
   

   Pin the shoulder seams

5. Return to the mannequin wrong side out and pin side seams, leaving a gap from the shoulder to the armpit (this line should be on your mannequin or is approximately 5 inches from the shoulder). Serge side seams leaving gap for arms.
   

   Pin side seams

6. Turn dress right side out and return to mannequin.  Take scissors and even out the bottom so it is even with the largest portion of the hips.
7. Cut two 21″x 27″ rectangles of chiffon for the skirt.
8. Sew both ends of the chiffon together to make a wide tube 21″ long for the skirt.
9. Pin the seams of the skirt to the seams of the bodice, right sides together.  Pleat the rest of the skirt evenly between the seams.  Remove from mannequin and stitch.
   

   Pleat and pin skirt to bodice.

10. Return dress to mannequin.  Pin trim on one side of the side seam starting just below the skirt seam.
    

    Pin trim along side seam.

11. Continue pinning up the dress, making sure the edge of the trim is right at the side seam.  When you get to the armscye, curve around the entire armscye with trim slightly inside the shoulder line.
12. Continue down the other side of the side seam, pinning right against the other trim.
13. Repeat with the second side, making sure to match where the trim falls on the other side of the mannequin.
14. Stitch along both edges of trim.
15. Starting in the center back, pin trim where the skirt attaches to the bodice, covering the edges of the trim on the side seams.  Be sure to fold over the trim and overlap the start of the trim in the center back.
16. Pin trim starting at the center back, a few inches below the shoulders.
    

    Start pinning at center back.

17. Continue pinning up to the shoulder, leaving an inch gap between neck trim and arm trim.
18. Pin down along the front up to the other shoulder, with a gentle slope that matches the turning ability of the trim.  Don’t force it or your neckline will look lumpy.
    

    Pin gentle curving neckline matching the play of the trim.

19. Continue down the back to the first point forming a v-neck in the back, being sure to fold over and overlap at the center back.
20. Remove dress from mannequin and sew all trim down the left side and then back up the right side.
    

    Stitch up both sides of the trim to hold it in place.

21. Trim excess fabric that shows under your trim at armscye and neck.
    

    Trim armscye and neckline.

22. Return dress to mannequin and trim the nylon chiffon skirt evenly to where you want the dress to fall.  As I’ve mentioned I made the dress sit right at my knees.
    

    Trim hemline to where you want dress to fall.

Voila!  Make sure you wear a dark slip or underdress as the chiffon makes the dress 100% see through.

Front view of flapper dress.

Side view of flapper dress.

Back view of flapper dress.